2006

2006:

Slash radio interview: “Axl has a record coming out, I think in March, which is cool, because it will be interesting to hear, after all this time.” VÃ¦rt: “So wait, Chinese Democracy is coming out?” Slash: “Yeah, it’s coming out in March!”

13 – Axl spottes ved en fest for Korn’sturnestart “See You on the Other Side” i Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Axl havde ogsÃ¥ et mindre interview med Rolling Stone (lÃ¦s her), hvor han fortÃ¦ller lidt om albummet:Â Â “It’s a very complex record. I’m trying to do something different. Some of the arrangements are kind of like QUEEN. Some people are going to say, ‘It doesn’t sound like Axl Rose, it doesn’t sound like GUNS N’ ROSES.’ But you’ll like at least a few songs on there. We’re working on thirty-two songs, and twenty-six are nearly done. Of those, thirteen are slated for the final album.” Han sagde at hans personlige favoritter pÃ¥ albummet var “Better“, “There Was A Time” og “The Blues“. [Kilde]

03 – Axl ansÃ¸ger om at eje ALT hvad der udgives af Guns N’ Roses. Det nye album annonceres at udkomme i april mÃ¥ned.Â IfÃ¸lge Merck Mercuriadis: “This will not delay the new album – quite the opposite – tying up these loose ends allows us to get on with it.”

Axl: “I’m just doing 4 warm up shows to get ready for Europe and we’ll see what happens, and it just feels great you know. Everybody’s excited, the band is excited. They were rehearsing in L.A, and then they’re out here, and they’re all excited to be here. It just feels good. Easier too.”

Axl:“We’ve just finished our 4 shows in New York and had an amazing time. New York has always been special and it feels great to be doing this again particularly in front of so many friends.”

Axl: “Izzy joined us, Kid Rock joined us, Sebastian Bach joined us. Izzy was great, except he was supposed to do the last song, “Paradise”, with us, but he left because he had to get up early. We couldn’t really understand it, like one more song, woah, dude!”

Izzy:“NY was pretty cool!”

Sebastian Bach: “Axl was cool enough to invite me onstage all four nights to sing with him the Guns N’ Roses song of my choice, which happens to be ‘My Michelle’.”

Ron:“I expected people to chant the names of old guitarists, haha!! Mostly I was concerned about remembering the songs! Was still learning them a few hours before going on stage…”

Axl:This guy just goes “hey, you have any interest in doing like four or five songs at Rosario Dawson’s” and I was like “yeah”.

Axl: In my opinion it was the smartest thing I’ve done in at least 10 years.

Richard: We did it [You’re Crazy] acoustically at that little club in NY, but I’d like to do it with the full band.

19 – Hookers N’ Blow spiller et show iÂ McMurphyâ€™s Pasadena CA.

22 – Sanctuary Artist Management udgiver en meddelelse omkring GnR’s shows i New York. “Over the four nights, audiences were also treated to nearly half of the band’s upcoming new album, Chinese Democracy, with live performances of “Chinese Democracy,” “Better,” “There was a Time,” “Madagascar,” “IRS” and “The Blues”.”

Ron: “First song, me and Tommy lost power – took a minute to get it back on.”

Merck Mercuriadis: “Overall it was an amazing night and an amazing crowd but we had problems with the band’s monitor desk blowing up and there were many times that they could not hear. Axl had a muscle spasm probably caused by the slippery stage wings that slowed him down and gave him a lot of pain and he is working with a specialist in Milan to get through it. It was a really fun show and could have been worse all things considered and we’re lucky we didn’t cock it up any worse than we did.”

Sebastian Bach: “Axl asked me if I wanted to fly with him to Europe to duet with him in England at Donington and Hammersmith. Of course I said YES.”

Brian May: “It was on the cards for me to play with Axl and his boys last night – but I was unable to get to their sound-check, and, without that kind of preparation, I felt that going on ‘blind’ might have been a risk. Now I totally don’t mind taking risks, but not if it’s a risk of messing up someone else’s show! The up-side was that because I was not going on, I could sit out front, and totally relax and enjoy the show, without having to think about my own stuff. (Also it did occur to me later on that probably 3 guitarists is more than enough ! ha ha! Great band, though.)”

Brian May: “I thought Axl was stunning… riveting… I have seldom seen Hammersmith Odeon in such a state of electric hyper- energy. Just before the band went on, I thought I could actually see sparks in the air! There have been very few performers in the world, ever, who could elicit that kind of response. And just hearing that voice, drinking it in, letting it drench the soul, was pure therapy – enough to keep the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end the whole night. Axl, as ever, is magic.”

Brian May: “‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ was truly outstanding – there were some notes in there that made oger and I look at each other like… “f…. did you HEAR that?!!” This song also had Axl’s voice nice and high in the mix, which made it very enjoyable… Of course Axl could just about do it without a microphone… but – Hell – that throat is what we all went to hear!”Â

Axl:“Sure we have racing in the US, but this here is another dimension. The atmosphere is mesmerizing. All my professional life I have worked with sound so I truly appreciate the noise that these cars produce. They make the air vibrate. I am very happy having been given the chance to feel this spectacle with all my senses. True, itâ€™s my first time, but surely not my last. My favourites? Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen.”

Ron: “The roses in the venue – it was beautiful And a fantastic Mexican restaurant across from the hotel – they had this black bean soup that just kicked ass! Frank said it was just like his mom’s – it’s funny, we were saying that we found the best Mexican food in Poland…”

Axl:“We had a great gig in Stockholm and I am not going to let this incident spoil that. My assistant Beta and I were talking in the lobby of the hotel when security started to give us a hard time. My only concern was to make sure she was ok.”

02 – Show for omkring 25,000 tilskuere i Goffertpark, Nijmegen, Holland.Â Showet begynder omkring kl. 22, og igen kommer Izzy pÃ¥ scenen med bandet. FÃ¸r ‘Better,’ siger Axl: “Thank you, I’d like to thank all of you for coming out, we hope that we will enjoy ourselves this evening. Thank you all to try and help out. This is a song that uh, is put together by Mr. Robin Finck. I’m sure a lot of you motherfuckers have already downloaded that sh*t.” Efter ‘Think About You,’ siger Axl: “Calm down. I’ll tell you what the Swedish police told me they said “Calm down”, then they said “You’re going to be arrested”, then I said “you’re a fuckin asshole” …..or something like that.”SÃ¦tliste: Welcome To The Jungle, It’s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone, Live And Let Die, Better, Robin Guitar Solo, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Dizzy Piano Solo, The Blues, You Could Be Mine, Robin & Richard Guitar Duet (Beautiful), Out Ta Get Me, Jam, November Rain, Ron Guitar Solo (Dont Cry), My Michelle, Patience (m/Izzy Stradlin), Think About You (m/Izzy Stradlin), Nightrain (m/Izzy Stradlin), Robin Guitar Solo, Paradise City (m/Izzy Stradlin)

M/MELROSE:

05 – Det fÃ¸rste af to udsolgte shows for 10,000 fans i Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland.Â Bullet for My Valentine mÃ¥tte trÃ¦kke sig fra tre shows med GnR pga. nogle personlige familieproblemer. SÃ¥ de aflyste de to shows i Helsinki og i Oslo (d. 8. juli). Bandet Melrose Ã¥bner i stedet for. Showet blev udsolgt pÃ¥ 8 minutter, hvilket medfÃ¸rte det ekstra show dagen efter. Bandet gik pÃ¥ 22:45 og sluttede omkring 130 minutter efter. Efter “The Blues“, taler Axl om sin tur i spjÃ¦ldet i Sverige: “And there I was in my jail in Sweden and the cops thought that he must be on drugs since he is a bad american rock star! There were 5 guys trying to hold me down and this amateur doctor was trying to hit the vain but missed it many times and there was blood all over. Then I saw this pretty girl standing in the door and you know they don’t really like me! But I’m not interested in Swedes with a good taste I’m interested of Swedes that taste good!” Publikum grinede. Et lille rygte om at Axl festede med Kimi RÃ¤ikkÃ¶nen og hans kone efter showet, fordi Kimi ikke ville (eller kunne) feste med ham i Silverstone.SÃ¦tliste: Welcome To The Jungle, It’s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone, Live And Let Die, Robin Guitar Solo (Finlandia), Sweet Child O’ Mine, Madagascar, You Could Be Mine, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Dizzy Piano Solo, The Blues, Think About You, Richard Guitar Solo, Out Ta Get Me, November Rain, Ron Guitar Solo (Don’t Cry), My Michelle, Patience, Better, Nightrain, Paradise City

Dizzy: “Newcastle was one of the best gigs of the entire tour. I had puddles of sweat underneath my keyboards and loved every second of it except when some idiots decided to throw things at the stage. When Axl got hit the first time, the audience pointed out who threw the object and security tossed him out, so we came back. Then Axl got hit in the mouth with another object, so thanks to the behavior of two morons who obviously don’t know how to behave at a rock concert, the show ended with no encores. I’ve been in this band for sixteen years and stupid sh*t like throwing stuff at the stage is something we won’t tolerate. We’re not targets, we’re musicians.”

Robin Finck: “We had a great time Wednesday night and Axl sang his ass off but you do not wait around to get hit in the mouth for a third time.”

Axl:“Getting hit wasn’t a big deal. We stopped the song and gave a warning. We came back and started the song over and completed it. We then said goodnight. The house lights went down and I got hit a second time, in the mouth, by a solid object thrown by someone in the audience. After having warned the crowd that we would leave, and having played more than two hours, we left the stage and called it a night with the full support of everyone in the band, our guests and management. Izzy was the first to immediately support the decision verbally to me personally before I had physically left the stage area. Tommy and Frank came to my dressing room to say how much they appreciated the decision to not continue under those conditions, and express their support for not tolerating anyone throwing items at the stage with a negative intent. This has been GNR’s policy since playing Donington in 1988. We thank everyone for coming, we hope everyone got home safely and we hope to play Newcastle again â€” hopefully without those looking for enjoyment at others expense. Cheers!”

Sebastian Bach: “I mentioned to him the recording of the new CD ‘Angel Down’ and how much it would mean for our band to open some Guns N’ Roses shows. Axl’s response was to offer the band the whole European tour. To say that my mind is blown, or that I am thankful for this opportunity, is so superfluous. I really cannot express how much this means to me.”

Izzy: “I spent my summer vacation touring w /Axl`s new gnr and had some fun playin live again. Amazing fans out there…. it’s hard to believe at times.fantastic! GNR tour: Axl and I connected via cell phone this year, I stopped bye to see if he looked as old as he might be………… Same age as myself, you know and he looked great! It was nice to reconnect with an old friend/war buddy/fellow musician. I told him later I’d like to join the fun in some way and he said I was welcome to come and play something, so I did! Took me about 3 weeks to recover from the 6 weeks of touring!!!!”

Axl: “We have had an amazing tour and it has been fantastic for the band and I to experience this. I approached this last show with equal parts determination, obligation, responsibility and insanity. It was an amazing night. I want to thank everyone in Europe and the UK for inspiring us and for giving us the opportunity to play for them. We are now looking forward to the US in September.”

PÃ¥ deres genopstÃ¥ede officielle hjemmeside, annoncerer Guns N’ Roses den fÃ¸rste del af turneen i Nordamerika, der varer indtil 16. januar, 2007. En kryptisk besked lyder ogsÃ¥ : “As for Guns N’ Roses forthcoming “Chinese Democracy” album the only comment at this time is that there are 13 Tuesdays left between now and the end of the year.”

11 – I New York Metro Magazine, fortÃ¦ller Axl hvorfor albummet er sÃ¥ lÃ¦nge om at udkomme: “It’s not about being a control freak. It’s about being maybe smart enough to go, ‘No, that’s a bad idea.’ That’s all it’s about keeping the ability to at least have a shot as opposed to something that’s just an obvious disaster. I want to make a good record. I don’t want to throw a brick. This cannot be Shaq at the free-throw line“.

18 -Â Merck Mercuriadis i Rolling Stone: “The album will come out this year. There are ten Tuesdays left before January – it will come out on one of them. I don’t know that we will announce a release date. You just might walk into your record shop one Tuesday and find it there“.

Sanctuary Group:
“Tonight’s show at the Cumberland County Civic Center has been cancelled due to limitations imposed by local fire marshals.

Axl and the band are very unhappy about not being able to play for the fans in Portland but have been advised after several meetings with local fire marshals Nelson Collins and Bob Cadigan that they have made it impossible for the band to perform their show to the usual high standards that their fans deserve.

More importantly, we have been informed that officials intend to enforce rules and regulations that should not and do not apply in this venue. Our production manager and crew have been in this building with Clay Aiken and Green Day and none of the restrictions imposed on Guns Nâ€™ Roses were experienced by those artists. It is our opinion that they are going out of their way to target and single out Guns N’ Roses and the band’s loyal fans. Following consultation with the band’s manager, agent and promoter, it was felt that it was best to cancel the show. It is a regrettable decision, particularly at this late notice, but it is of paramount importance that our fans have the best experience possible without being harassed and threatened.

We look forward to continuing the tour in Worcester on Wednesday.”

Axl: “I would like to apologize to all of the fans in Maine for the show not happening last night. It was important for us to play there and it is a shame that what should have been a great night for all of us was not possible due to the actions of two people.

I agree with, and ultimately take responsibility for, the end decision not to jeopardize the safety of the fans, the crews, the bands and myself as a result of the methods of these particularly draconian authorities. We are not trying to get away or get out of anything or pull a fast one by combining ticket sales as has been speculated.

There are reasons that I have not spoken more about Montreal and Philadelphia that have been extremely complicated and are not legally resolved behind the scenes to this day and could have possibly jeopardized the future of Guns N’ Roses.

We have chosen to take the public heat for these events in order to have another shot at the future today with a new album.

The professionals around me felt that Portland was a potentially explosive situation that could have had a somewhat similar result based on the behavior of the two aforementioned fire marshals (it’s not my first barbeque!) had the fans been given entry to the building and the show started. In respect of these opinions, our fans, the people of Portland, and the bands scheduled to play with us that night, unfortunately the only sensible decision was not to take that chance.

We hope to find another way to play for you in the future. Thanks for even trying to see us. It sincerely is much more than appreciated.”Â

Axl: “We actually used a sample of Michael J. Fox from (his film) Casualties of War in one of our songs that will be on the new album. So I felt, one, I’ve always been a fan of his. And I also feel for the guy and his situation. I’m for stem-cell research, so I just thought it would be wrong not for me to come when I was asked.”

M. SUICIDE GIRLS & SEBASTIAN BACH:

13 -Â Show for 5527 fans i 1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, MD. Axl introducerer “You Could Be Mine” med denne anekdote: “So I was in England, I was walking around the Soho area there, and this young guy with spiky hair and sh*t, had a Motley Crue t-shirt and sh*t, comes running. He’s like ‘Dude! Dude! Dude! Dude!’ Pulls his shirt down and he had tattooed right across, Fit To Burn“. Et andet sted i showet siger han: “I’m gonna take a minute to introduce the band here, and give these people over here time to get good naps so they can rest up for the rest of the show.”SÃ¦tliste: Welcome To The Jungle, It’s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone, Live And Let Die, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Robin Guitar Solo / Jam, Sweet Child O’ Mine, You Could Be Mine, Dizzy Piano Solo (Ziggy Stardust), The Blues, Piano Moving Jam, Better, Richard Guitar Solo, Richard & Robin Guitar Duet (Beautiful), Out Ta Get Me, Jam, November Rain, Jam, Down On The Farm, Ron Guitar Solo (Don’t Cry), My Michelle (m/Sebastian Bach), Used To Love Her, Patience, Nightrain, Chinese Democracy, Paradise City

Axl:“We had a great show in Chicago tonight and had hoped to do a surprise acoustic show afterwards. I have been fighting this off for a long time but the doctor told me tonight that the only way not to jeopardise the balance of the tour is immediate rest. We will now have 3 days off before continuing Friday. We are sorry to miss the fans in Milwaukee.”

“Ron here â€” this is not a statement on behalf of GN’R, just speaking for myself, me to you.

For whatever it’s worth, I love you guys and appreciate all the support you guys have given the band. I haven’t been in the band very long, but long enough to experience how great it is to have fans that care as much as you. Maybe it’s too-little-too-late to let you know that, but that’s how I feel, and it hasn’t changed.

From what I’ve seen, if ya give out info before it’s 100% confirmed, and things don’t happen as planned, it leads to people feeling betrayed, so info should only come at the final moment when all the piece are in place. That’s not a GN’R thing, it’s everything, every business or band or anything else.

If you’re looking for daily or weekly updates on things that are in the works, it’ll become a big mess for everyone. Meanwhile, we’re touring. It’s been fucking great.

Since my first show with GUNS in May, we’ve played nearly 70 shows, in 20 countries (if I counted right, at 3am after being up 30 hours… [***]) The way I see it, for two-and-a-half hours each of those nights, it’s our time to connect with each other â€” we get to say *fuck it* to everything else in life and enjoy ourselves â€” that’s what it’s about. It’s not about business or setlists or critics or anything else â€” it’s about saying FUCK IT and gettin’ high off it from beginning to end and a long time after.

Hope y’all have been enjoying it to the fullest. Life’s too damn short to be upset about what you don’t have â€” enjoy what you do have.

Not trying to change anything by writing ya, not answering the questions you want answered, just letting ya know that your support hasn’t gone unnoticed, and I just wanna say *thank you* to the moderators and members of your forum. For the years you’ve devoted to the band, and hopefully years to come…”

â€œDue to the schedule of these particular shows valuable time needed by the band and record company for the proper setup and release of the album â€˜Chinese Democracyâ€™ would be lost. Rather than delay the album yet again all involved have decided to remove these shows from GNRâ€™s schedule. We sincerely hope our fans understand and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone. Tickets may be refunded at local point of purchase.

To say the making of this album has been an unbearably long and incomprehensible journey would be an understatement. Overcoming the endless and seemingly insanity of the obstacles faced by all involved, not withstanding the emotional challenges endured by everyone: the fans, the band, our road crew and business team has at many times seemed for all like a bad dream where one wakes up only to find they are still in the nightmare and unfortunately this time it has been played out for over a decade in real life.

The true ongoing behind-the-scenes triumphs and casualties are much more complicated than any negative speculation that media or otherwise has managed to hit upon. For much of the time some form or another of legalities have been taking place that really the best way to deal with publicly was to keep our mouths shut in an attempt to ensure the best outcome and especially one that wouldnâ€™t jeopardize the band or the album. One can easily point to how others have done things or how they themselves feel that they would were they in the same situations but without full knowledge of the various dynamics and circumstances involved, again these types of comments or commentary are uninformed, outside, generally useless and often hindering speculation.

When I agreed to do our recent North American tour I agreed with the understanding that I and my manager Merck Mercuriadis were in full agreement as to our strategy, touring plans and most importantly that any and all things needed to release the album at the latest by Dec. 26th were to be in place. Unfortunately this turned out not to be the case and not only do I regret to say that again the album will not be released by the end of the year but that though many things went extremely well and were very exciting there were in our opinion unnecessary and avoidable complications on our tour having to do with the tour routing, scheduling and album and video plans that played hell on all involved especially our crew. This was compounded by an overall sense of a lack of respect by management for the band and crew and each individualâ€™s particular expertise that has resulted unfortunately in the end of both GUNS and my relationship in having a management or sense of band involvement with Merck Mercuriadis.

In regard to a release date for the album itself certain minor and by that I do mean minor things and or additions as well as contract negotiations need to be completed and barring any unforeseen complications these things have now been adequately scheduled. Both the band and I along with our record company feel that this record deserves the proper setup and promotion not the â€™13 Tuesdays leftâ€™ and â€˜it may just appear in your record storeâ€™ approach offered by management. We believe this strategy may have been used in order for management to sell this latest tour to the various promoters. We feel that if this was so, this was obviously unfair to them. The stress of dealing with this situation has been considerable for everyone as well as to the band themselves as a whole but that this was more importantly in our opinion something utterly insane to do to our fans. Our apologies and please know we have been laboring over this with management for the entire North American tour.

It takes approximately 8 weeks for an album to hit the shelves once it has been turned in to the record company. For whatever reasons it appears it may have been mistakenly inferred by management that this could be condensed to three. That being said this is not a promise, a lie or a guarantee but we do wish to announce a tentative release date of March 6th. This is the first time we have done this publicly for this album. Any and all other dates have been made up by others for their own reasons. We would like to assure the fans that though tentative everything in our power will be done to meet this date. Once it is finalized and official you will be notified. If we are delayed for unseen reasons you will also be notified as soon as possible in regard to a new date and the album will be released as shortly thereafter as is possible. We thank you for your patience.

In the end itâ€™s just an album and one that I, the band, our record company and all involved believe and feel is a true GUNS Nâ€™ ROSES album. Ultimately the public will decide and regardless of the outcome our hearts, lives and our passion has been put into this project every step of the way. If for no other reason we feel those elements alone merit your consideration. We do hope you can hold on just a bit longer and if not we hope you would please feel free to take a break and weâ€™ll be more than glad (if you so choose) to see you again later.

Once again, our sincere apologies and our deepest thanks, GUNS Nâ€™ ROSES would also like to thank all the fans who attended the 70 concerts in 21 different countries for their support in 2006. All the best to each and every one of you over this holiday season, thank-you and God bless.â€